Tag "poverty"

Over two decades after South Africa’s first democratic election, the realities facing young people remain as troubling as ever due to issues such as crime, poverty, unequal educational opportunities, unemployment and drug abuse. While the country’s annual Youth Day on 16 June commemorates the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the struggle for a better quality of life for the country’s youth continues – over 40 years later.

It’s a scorching day in Khayelitsha. Even if it’s much too hot to stay in the sun, people are crowded in the middle of the streets, sweat trickling down their backs. The centre of their attention is Mr Bonginkosi Madikizela, minister of Human Settlements in the Western Cape, who is visiting a housing project. ‘When will sanitation be supplied?’ The residents ask him repeatedly. He promises them that he will make sure to fast-track it, before getting back into his car and driving away.

If global capitalism had a human face, it would not be that of the corporate CEO swirling a glass of overpriced brandy behind a mahogany desk, but that of the countless multitudes whose poverty and dispossession make possible his extravagant quality of life. I saw many of these faces during my visit to the Vrygrond and Capricorn townships last Friday.